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Evan & Tiki

Jets Hopelessness and the Gruden Debate

Evan & Tiki

Audacy

Sports

4.2988 Ratings

🗓️ 28 January 2026

⏱️ 26 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Jets fans hit a new low, so Evan turns to Tiki Barber for the one thing the fanbase is desperate for: an actual path forward. Tiki lays out a realistic short-term blueprint, starting with finding a competent, slightly “down on his luck” offensive mind, then using the Jets’ cap flexibility to take a swing at a real QB plan that doesn’t feel like another doomed lottery ticket. That leads straight into the Malik Willis idea, why he’s viewed differently than Justin Fields, and why a Bridgewater-plus-Willis approach could at least make the offense functional and watchable. From there, the calls light up with the real issue hovering over everything: Jon Gruden. Is he even hirable? Do the Jets need a “CEO coach” to fix the entire operation? And if the Jets are already sniffing around Gruden, does that mean ownership is setting the table for the inevitable move next year? The segment wraps with a brutally honest look at the Jets’ league-wide reputation, the fear that top quarterbacks simply won’t choose New York, and the uncomfortable reality that “hope” might now mean rooting for the No. 1 pick and praying the next coach can finally change the culture.

Transcript

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0:00.0

Can you at least present to us a path forward in which this can still be a success for the Jets in the short term? Yeah, it can. And the, it's, this will be hard, but this is, this is, this is how I can see it happening. You need to go get an offensive coordinator who was well thought of, but on hard times. Is that Frank Reich, even though he's not all hard times? I'm not talking about Frank Reich. I'm talking about a kid like Bobby Sloick. Okay.

0:24.3

Remember Bobby Sloick? Because when his first year in Houston, I was lauding him because how good C.J. Stroud was playing in his first season. He was a quarterback coach in San Francisco. He just got hired as the OC in Miami.

0:38.0

So he's not available.

0:39.6

Jeff Hathley got him.

0:40.8

Someone like that.

0:41.8

So not him, but someone like that who is maybe either not ready, but is at least competent as a play call.

0:49.7

Oh, I have an idea.

0:50.8

Tanner Engstrand.

0:51.9

No, definitely not.

0:52.9

But you need someone like that, right?

0:55.0

You need the Bobby Sloic type, not someone who is hot and rising like a Joe Brady before he got hired, but someone who's right there but has the mind to be competent at his job.

1:07.0

All right.

1:08.0

Right?

1:09.0

And then the cap situation is very convoluted with the Jets.

1:14.3

The cap is going up to $304,5 million is coming up season.

1:18.5

And I want to bog you down on the numbers, but the reality is the Jets have $80 million in

1:24.1

cap space.

1:25.1

Now, I know people say, isn't it over 100?

1:29.1

Yes, but they got $75 million in dead cap. That's Aaron Rogers. That's Quinn and Williams. That's C.J. Mosley.

1:35.9

That's like all of these players that are no longer on the team, Sauce Gardner, that are still

1:40.5

counting against the cap. And then you have Justin Fields. And that will eventually be some kind of day. Right. So you have 80 million. It's gonna end up being probably close to 90 million in dead cap, but you still have 70 something million dollars in cap space for this year. And because the cap is not just one year, you're not putting all of whoever you go acquires salary on one year. You're spreading it out. They have a lot of room to do stuff. The first thing they need to do is get that coordinator. The second thing they need to do is go get Teddy Bridgewater. I like Teddy. He's a free agent. And the third thing is go get Malik Willis. Malik Willis is his, it's not going to be expensive, but it's not going to be cheap either.

2:22.4

Yeah.

...

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